Kosher certification is one of the most important steps you can take for your growing food business. It enhances your ability to market your products and enables you to use our KA Logo to identify your product as kosher. It is of the highest kosher standard and is accepted by all sectors of the domestic and international market.

The Kashrut Authority is a proud member of AKO, the Association of Kashrus Organisations www.akokosher.org

1. Introductory Overview

According to the Jewish dietary laws there are three groups of restricted items:

GROUP 1 - ANIMAL PRODUCTS AND THEIR DERIVATIVES

These include:

a) Meat, poultry, fish, sea food and their derivatives such as gelatine;b) Animal or marine fats and oils, margarines, shortenings etc. containing even traces of animal fats and oils; and derivatives of such products such as glycerin, glycerides, stearates, G.M.S., polysorbates, emulsifiers etc.; these are often numbered between 471 to 479.c) Blood and its derivatives such as blood albumen;d) Animal rennet.

N.B. Eggs are not a restricted item, although milk and milk products are to some extent (see Group 3 below).

GROUP 2 - WINE PRODUCTS

a) All grape-based drinks or grape-based alcohol products such as wine, brandy and wine vinegar;b) Grape based colouring such as Enocyanin or Anthocyanin may pose a problem and their presence must be noted.c) Other non-grape based alcohol and alcoholic beverages or their derivatives are acceptable.

GROUP 3 - MILK AND ITS DERIVATIVES

All dairy products such as milk, cream, butter, cheese, milk powder, milk fat, casein, caseinate, lactose etc. are subject to certain restrictions and their presence needs to be known. They are kosher but products containing these ingredients must be designated Dairy.

ADDITIONAL SPECIAL POINTS WHICH NEED TO BE CONSIDERED:

Vegetable oils and shortenings:

We have had difficulties with regard to the absolute purity of vegetable oils which, though of vegetable origin can pick up significant traces of animal oils during refining, packaging etc. With regard to products containing vegetable oil we would need to know the source of supply of such oil to enable us to ascertain its absolute "purity" with the original refiners with whom we would normally have had prior contact.

Shared machinery and production lines:

We would need to have information concerning any possibility of "acceptable" items sharing the same machinery or production lines as "unacceptable" products. In such cases of shared production lines etc. we would need to know full details of cleaning processes between the manufacture of each item concerned.

2. Procedure for Kosher Certification

In order to facilitate accurate assessment of the above you will be asked to fill out an application form. We would need to have, a complete list of ingredients and manufacturers of those ingredients as well as whether or not those ingredients are already kosher certified. Please include a copy of the current kosher certificate with your application. We would also need the Names of Flavours and flavour houses including product numbers.

Please note that many items in Group 1 and Group 2 might be produced kosher e.g. there are many glycerides and stearates coming from the U.S. Asia or Europe that have been produced by a kosher supplier approved by us or affiliate bodies. There are also now a number of Australian companies that can produce to kosher standards. We would, upon perusal of your ingredient list then advise as to whether your particular products were suitable for kosher certification.

Initial Inspection

Upon assessment of your application you will be contacted as to an initial inspection. The usual charge for an initial inspection is $500.00. If the visit leads to certification then this amount will be credited to your annual plant registration fee. Plant registration can be between $500.00 and $8,000 per annum. The final cost will depend on many factors and will be assessed by the Rabbinic Administrator and his team. While many products require only an annual visit some require many more visits per year. The Rabbinic Administrator will assess this at the time of his visit. These visits may cost between $250 and $1000 per visit depending on the nature of the visit required. Travelling costs will usually need to be borne by the company seeking certification.

Once a product is approved you will also be asked to sign a kosher certification agreement. Upon receipt of this signed agreement you will be issued with a kosher certificate that is recognised the world over as well as access to our secure online kosher certification platform - Digital Kosher.

For more information, or if your company would like to apply for Kosher Certification, please contact The Kashrut Authority office at info@ka.org.au or +61 93652933

To view or download the application for Kosher certification, click on the link below: